The St. Louis Rams could be in the process of re-locating to Los Angeles, a St. Louis media outlet is reporting.
The team, which had been located in Los Angeles before moving to St. Louis in 1994, is in the final year of a lease with the Convention and Visitors Commission, which runs the Edward Jones Dome. There has been rampant speculation that owner Stan Kroenke has been been seriously considering a move to Los Angeles, a city hungry for a football team.
Now a report from ESPN Radio in St. Louis indicates that the Rams have already planned a move and will announce it publicly after Super Bowl XLIX.
Many have already suggested that the St. Louis Rams could relocate to Los Angeles. In early September, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell wrote that it will take a region-wide effort to keep the team from moving, a tall task given the state of politics in the region.
“Stop looking at this as a stadium issue and instead envision it as a larger plan that will revitalize the entire region. The most troubling part of the political heel dragging that St. Louis is infamous for is that it plays right into Los Angeles’ hands. The more St. Louis waits, the more Gov. Jay Nixon proceeds with trepidation, the more incentive it gives Kroenke to find a way to put LA in play.
“The thing I wish would happen now is for someone in power to declare if we actually want to keep the Rams. If we do, then stop messing around. Put a deal on the table for Kroenke to consider. Give him some of that valuable land that is along the Mississippi riverfront from the new bridge all the way down to the shadows of Busch Stadium. Land, land, land, land. That’s what billionaire real estate developers value most. Give him some land and let him join in a vision to expand the Gateway Arch project to even greater and spectacular proportions.”
There have been other signs that the St. Louis Rams could be re-locating to Los Angeles. Earlier this year owner Stan Kroenke purchased a 60-acre tract of land in Inglewood, California, through an affiliate company, leading to speculation that he was planning to build a stadium after the move.
[Image via Bleacher Report]